An Experimental Portrayal of Personal Evolution

The term “autobiographical animation” seems almost contradictory, yet two recent films “Persepolis” (2007) and “Waltz with Bashir” (2008) use this form to capture psychological, emotional and personal stories in a way that live action could not possibly.                                 
The films use Middle Eastern cultural identity as an entry point into discussing both the larger socio-political landscape, the characters’ own internal conflict and ultimately their growth. The animation, rather than being gimmicky or tacked on, allows for the characters to safely explore painful experiences, share fragmented dreams and tell past stories. Furthermore, it provides the audience with the chance to visually experience internalized emotions, distant memories and living through a time and place that they may never have understood before. Ultimately, both films use animation to portray global, local and personal issues. 

Film Director Marjane Satrapi and her animated character in Persepolis (Photo courtesy : Persepolis, Sony Pictures)

Persepolis follows the life of a young Iranian girl as she lives through the 1970s revolution, moves to Vienna for school and back to Iran again where she see profound changes in her home country. “Waltz with Bashir” follows Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman as he struggles to remember his time as an Israeli soldier present during the 1982 Lebanese massacre. The film begins with a dream sequence his friend tells him involving 26 rabid dogs. the surreal and semi-somnambulant style continues as Folman travels around the world talking with former soldiers and friends and trying to piece together the events he witnessed. The film subtly touches on post-traumatic stress disorder and portrays the condition through animation in a way that could not work with live action.

In the broadest sense, Persepolis tackles the complicated issue of cultural globalization in a country going through radical shifts away from tolerance for Western culture. It shows the main character as a typical teenage girl living in an extremely atypical situation. Her initial love of Western culture creates strong tensions with her family mandated identity as fully Iranian in a country that is ever increasingly anti-western. Globalization’s intricate and precarious role in Iran is reflected in the main character throughout the film. Marjane makes no apologies for her love of Western culture saying at one point “I remember I led a peaceful, uneventful life as a little girl. I loved fries with ketchup, Bruce Lee was my hero, I wore Adidas sneakers and had two obsessions: Shaving my legs one day and being the last prophet of the galaxy.” These fantasies are played out in humorous and endearing animation sequences showing the young Iranian rocking out to music and having Bruce Lee posters in her room.

However, her cultural identity is challenged and complicated when she moves to Vienna for school. Before she goes her father tells her, “Never forget who you are and where you’re from.” She carries this with her as she encounters difficult and ultimately irreconcilable culture clashes. She dates men and has friends and goes to parties, but there’s always something darker and out of place looming just under the surface; it’s as if she cannot graft her own history and culture onto the present moment. She breaks down and comes home to Iran where she learns that the revolution has turned her country into an even more repressive place. Western goods are sold on the black market and women are forced to wear headscarves. In one dramatic scene she is back in school and the monotone multitude of female faces stare blankly at the screen, all wearing head scarves and pounding their chests. Marjane struggles to find her place in this new world. The graphic novel-esque treatment of her moment of re-entry is the perfect example of how form (animation) enables the content (what it means to live in a globalized world). In contrast to Persepolis’s focus on globalization in the character’s cultural habits, Waltz with Bashir’s global relevance is that of war.

Animated depiction of Beirut war circa 1982 in the film Waltz with Bashir (Photo courtesy : Creative Commons and Waltz with Bashir)

While the conflict in the Middle East is not officially a “world war” there are undeniable global effects. Although “Bashir” focuses on one event in a long war, its significance goes back generations and forwards to present day with strong implications. Folman’s personal struggle to remember reflects a larger world of fragmentation created by war—countries, cities and lives ripped apart, shattered and struggling to piece it all back together. The horror and pain of his experience is magnified through the global media lens—judgment on the soldiers’ reactions, blame at Israel and so on.  The animation of war creates a third wall through which the audience can peek behind and see the horrors of war. While initially one thinks that the make it into an animation would be to dampen the effect it in fact accomplishes quite the opposite—the stark black, yellow and orange images of the war scenes create an intimacy with the psychology of war that live action could not. Bashir also maintains the dreamlike sequences it started out with throughout the film as a means to outwardly display the inner emotions.

Stills from Persepolis  (Photo courtesy : Persepolis, Sony Pictures)

Finally on the more personal level, Persepolis is about Marjane’s evolution as a young woman, an Iranian and a global citizen. While we’ve seen how her experience really represents and reflects a global and Iranian perspective, the stories are ultimately about her own growth. The reason animation works so well in this respect is that she is able to show her emotional evolution. Had the film been in live action we would have only been hearing her words and seeing her as she is now, but through the lens of animation she’s able to show us the internal processes. As her country grows and progresses towards what it is today, she also does and finds that the country no longer fits in with her life. The audience watches this young woman bend and sway with the times moving from idealism to despair and back again.

Bashir’s complicated internal workings unveil themselves as the film goes on. Folman, rather than discussing the past as a linear story that leads to the present as Persepolis does, uses the present journey to uncover a past he’s buried. The man we know topically at the beginning of the film reveals himself to be someone of great depth, humility, pain and someone with the ability to transcend and evolve. The audience is left with a complicated set of emotions—while most naturally condemn the idle sitting around while hundreds of innocent people are slaughtered, we see the side of the young soldiers mandated to kill or not, they’re forced to fight wars while their free will is suspended. You see the fracture is creates in their minds, the pain and burden of living with themselves and the dual tragedy of war— loss of peace both internal and external. The great accomplishment of this film is not to apologize or justify, but merely to use one soldier’s struggle as a means of exploring an otherwise almost untouchable situation.

Film Director Ari Folman and his animated character in Waltz with Bashir (Photo courtesy : Waltz with Bashir)

As Folman gets closer and closer to the reality of the situation, finally learning the truth, the animation is traded for real photographs. This profound and startling shock back into reality forces the audience to really look at their emotions and opinions about the situation that occurred. It’s a bold move that ultimately pays off for Folman as a filmmaker because, while animation is highly effective at portraying inner emotion and past experiences, it cannot relay the true horrors of what happened.

 At the heart of both Persepolis and Bashir there’s a single human, working towards reconciling their situation and growing as people. They are stories that are intimate in their unique presentation and powerful in their common place occurrence. The use of animation shows changing worlds, countries and personal lives in a manner that is effective, profound and surprising. Animation also allows the filmmakers’ to share deeply personal truths with a global audience in a way that is both truthful and safe. I hope that others who have compelling stories to tell will adopt this new concept and continue blending the genres of documentary, autobiography and animation.

Comments

This is brilliant. Nice work Sarah.

Reminds me of Marshal McLuhan's discussion on how Media is the Message

"Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication" M. McLuhan.

Good stuff Sarah.

Your grasp of the content very impressive. Concept of when and how animation works well is very interesting.

Totally interesting! What a perspective; great writing.